We've put our ear to the ground and the verdict is in, June Lake needs beer. Luckily we brewed our first homebrew test batch of SmoKin Porter the other day (see pics below) and it's fermenting along nicely! If all goes to plan we should have our first samples for our TestPilot Crew mid March.

In the location department, we've assembled a list of potentials and have begun contacting the relevant parties. If you have a prime location that you want to discuss lease options about, hit us back and let's get the beer a home.

Oh Yeah... with the homebrew system setup we're underway! For our first sample brew we decided to jump right in with a 1bbl batch of SmoKin Porter. Though we were a little short on specific gravity, the taste is right on and it should come in around 5% for a good full-flavor session beer. Plus we've got the altitude on our side B-)

The brew went well when all was said and done despite the trials and tribulations of brewing on a new cobbled together 1bbl system, and our introduction to brewing at altitude. The biggest issue was we didn't have all the components to plumb our cold liquor tank/immersion chiller for cooling, so we had to let the ambient air temperature do it's work... 16hrs post-boil we'd reached 70 degrees F and we pitched an 11th generation yeast harvested from one of Cismontane Brewing's barley wines. Suffice it to say it all turned out well in the end and the SmoKin Porter is fermenting and on track for a mid-March release.

Hurray for June Lake! Now in residence it was a nice treat to wake up to fresh snow on the ground. With ~2" on the ground at 6am another ~2" had fallen by 9am! All of the beer sacrifices to Ullr have come to fruition. Aside from the glorious snow, we've been hard at work setting up our homebrew system (see technical schematic and before/after visual representation below) and should brew our first batch with June Lake water late next week. Suffice it to say we're really excited!

On the location front we've been talking and walking it in town and have a couple potentials in mind. If you've got an idea, or better yet have a commercial space you think would work, please reach out and lets talk beer! In the meantime getting some sample batches going is our priority #1.

Big beers are what we're going for and we plan to make three of our first four sample batches along these lines (always gotta have at least one fizzy, though still full bodied session beer). Finalizing our initial recipes, we're working to ensure the scalability to production volumes once we get to that point. We'd never forgive ourselves if we created some phenomenal beer that we couldn't reproduce on a large scale due to insufficient supply of specialty ingredients. So stay tuned for more updates after our first brew.

Well we're here... Having setup residence in June Lake, we're diligently working at brewing test batches and locking down a location for our production facility/tasting room. We've got two batches currently fermenting and should have tasters for our TestPilot Crew in a week or two. Stay tuned for info on our b001 SmoKin Porter release get together as it will be pretty frickin sweet! If you're interested in joining our TestPilot Crew, click on the "Reach Out" tab above and submit your info to our dedicated panel of investigative pigmy chimps for proper vetting and background checking. Aside from that enjoy a good beer and get outside.